Why You Aren’t More Productive, And What To Do About It

Do you know someone who always seems to be taking things to the next level? Somehow, year after year they manage to make amazing progress and leave everyone else in the dust?

They’ve managed to start a successful business they love, run some projects on the side, have plenty of time for recreation, and somehow seem to be in great shape too. It’s enough to make you think that maybe you aren’t cut from the same cloth. Maybe you just didn’t get the butt-kicking jean. Maybe you can’t hack it at that level.

It’s not that they have more hours in the day, and it’s not that they have an army of people doing busywork. These are regular people just like you and me. They put their pants on one leg at a time… only once they put their pants on, they get eye-popping results!

The secret to taking things up a notch or two

I know what you’re thinking, “How can you possibly expect me to do any more than I’m doing already?!” I know you’re completely maxed out. I understand that adding one more task, even a tiny one, will send the whole stack toppling over.

So what do you do when all the energy and hours are accounted for? How do you take things to the next level?

The secret is doing less, not more. As you already know, there isn’t enough time to go around. So when you want to do BIG things, you’re going to have to think carefully about how you spend your most limited resource.

How to make real progress in a busy world

Ironically the biggest culprit of productivity is wasting time doing things; things that aren’t the most important use of your time. Here are four steps to help you start making eye-popping progress today.

1) Define your goals. Clearly. On paper.

I cannot stress this enough. You must know where you are going, and it must be someplace you’re fired up about. Don’t just write down where you think you should be going. Write down what gets you excited in the morning!

If you want to start a successful lifestyle business, then also write down what your life will be like when you achieve that. If you want to make more money, then write down how that will impact your life.

2) Mercilessly throw out things that don’t get you there.

This is the part where you do less, not more. Look at where you’re spending you time and energy each day. Write them down. What areas are contributing directly to achieving your goals? What areas are taking up space?

Maybe you just don’t have time for that fantasy football league this year, or perhaps you can’t commit to hosting that dinner group each week. These are not going to be easy decisions, but they will make or break your progress.

I’m not saying that every second of your day needs to be dedicated to working towards your goals. There’s still plenty of time for family, friends, and a certain amount of obligations. I am saying that you can’t keep it all (at once anyway).

3) Focus, Focus, Focus.

Now that you’ve cleaned up some of the time and energy leaches its time to get down to business! Carve out one hour each day to work only on something that gets you closer to your goal. Surely you have an extra hour now that you’ve thrown out some activities and obligations right?

Sixty minutes a day may not sound like much, but if it’s dedicated, uninterrupted time every single day then you will make massive progress very quickly. Turn off your phone. Stay off Facebook and Twitter. Quit checking email. It’s only one hour!

And then…

Every time a new opportunity comes up filter it through your goals that you wrote down in step 1. Guard your time and your energy so you can focus it on making big progress.

Now let me know what you think of this strategy in the comments below!

I like this strategy a lot. I’ve sort of been doing it — cutting out the things that aren’t really helping me get where I’m going — but I like the idea of using an hour every day specifically for your big goal.

Something that’s been helping me is to make a weekly To Do list. Everything that is constructive to my big picture goes on that list, and every day I only have a few things that need to be done. By the end of the week, I’ve accomplished a lot for my writing business, even though I work part-time at a department store.

Hello Deacon, I’m new to your blog and really enjoyed this post. Great reminder about writing down goals. It’s very easy to get out of this habit. I think you nailed it with throwing out the things that don’t get you closer to your goals. That’s a good way to recoup some valuable time.